GOOD FOR EVIL.
"I SHAN'T do it!" and Danny raised his hand from the blocks, with which they were playing, and struck Nattie in the face.
The little girl started up in surprise. The blood rushed to her cheeks, and her eyes expressed all the indignation felt by her wounded heart. She was about to return the blow. But last Sabbath she stood up in the old country schoolhouse, when the teacher asked her for her verse, and repeated, "Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. "Nattie had not fully understood the meaning; but she kept thinking it over and over, when she ran out on Monday, merry with her pan of mixed bran, to feed the chickens, and when she lay in her bed at night, with the moonlight kissing away the dark, and waving wondrous spells through the grand old honey-suckle at the window, until at last she had it.
"Yes, that is it. It means, as Aunt Nelly told me last Christmas, when I wanted to pull Danny's hair, because he pulled mine, that 'I must do good for evil.' And so I will, the very next time Danny treats me bad," she added, as she threw back her curls, and drew up her little form in the bed to go to sleep.
Nattie's resolution was a good one, and she bore it in mind several days; but, somehow, Danny would not be provoking. And now, when she had least expected it, the temptation to evil came so strong, that, before she could think, she was ready to strike Danny. But her better thoughts prevailed; so she leaned forward, and, putting her little white hand on Danny's cheek, she kissed him right in the mouth. It was Danny's turn to be surprised; so he looked on Nattie without speaking a word, his large gray eyes full of wonder. There she sat, with her dark curls thrown back, her pearly teeth shining through her smiling lips, while tears trembled in her eyes. Danny gazed at her.
"This is good for evil," Nattie said, as she began to build her blockhouse.
Danny has grown to be a man, kind, generous, and respected. He often tells the little ones in Sabbath school how he first learned to "do good for evil," and the tears come into his eyes; for his teacher, little Nattie is sleeping under the sod.
Christian Repository.